Second Walker County Jail officer pleads guilty in Tony Mitchell's death

WALKER COUNTY, Alabama (WBRC) – A second correctional officer has agreed to plead guilty in connection with the death of Anthony “Tony” Mitchell while in custody at the Walker County Jail in January 2023.

According to federal court documents, Karen Kelly will plead guilty to deprivation of rights under the cloak of law.

Joshua Conner Jones, also a former Walker County corrections officer, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and deprivation of rights under the cloak of law.

Mitchell was arrested on January 12, 2023, after Walker County Sheriff's officers responded to a 911 call about a mental health issue. The incident escalated, with Mitchell firing shots at the officers, according to the Walker County Sheriff's Office.

Kelly worked the night shift, including as shift supervisor, seven of the 15 nights Mitchell spent in Walker County Jail. As Jones reported to federal authorities, Kelly said Mitchell was held in a cell that had only a drain in the floor and was left “naked, without a mat or blanket, on the cold, bare cement floor” most of the time.

Kelly said she was told by two unnamed lieutenants that Mitchell was being held in that cell by prison officials because he was on suicide watch, according to the federal settlement. Kelly said she never saw any documentation indicating Mitchell was on suicide watch and told federal investigators that Mitchell was not treated the same way as other inmates on suicide watch and never showed signs of self-harm or suicidal thoughts.

According to the agreement, Kelly said one of the unnamed lieutenants told her the nurse had “ceded her authority to determine who should or should not be placed on suicide watch to command staff, which she understood was against prison protocol. She never saw prison staff take any action to protect [Mitchell] from self-harm, for example by providing psychiatric treatment.”

Kelly told federal investigators she was “verbally abused” by one of the unnamed lieutenants after she made sure Mitchell's cell was cleaned of trash, food scraps and feces. The same lieutenant told Kelly, according to court documents, that Mitchell was “combative,” but she never witnessed it. Instead, Kelly said Mitchell was “obviously physically weakening and appeared more frail with each passing day.”

She further described Mitchell as someone who “had little communication skills, appeared to be incoherent much of the time, and appeared to be suffering from significant mental illness even to those without medical or psychiatric training.”

Kelly told federal investigators that she twice asked the unnamed second lieutenant if steps could be taken to get Mitchell a blanket or mat. She was told that “command staff insists that Mitchell remain detained under these conditions.”

She said she was not allowed to give Mitchell a towel on the “rare” occasions he took a shower.

Kelly told federal investigators that she believed prison officials were intentionally holding Mitchell in “inhumane” conditions, but that she “did not raise her concerns with anyone other than her immediate supervisor, even after they were ignored.”

Kelly said she feared retaliation because of the “prison culture” and did not take appropriate steps to alert the appropriate authorities.

“Instead, she attempted to evade the control of the prison authorities in order to remain employed there by failing to raise the alarm about [Mitchell’s] “People were murdered, their houses were left dilapidated and exposed to inhumane conditions,” the agreement states.

Mitchell died on January 26, 2023. His death was ruled a homicide. There have been no arrests in his case so far.

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